The first session of IPET-OWR (chaired by Dr. Daniel Michelson) was held at the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) headquarters from 13 to 16 March 2017. This new team was established to address various emerging issues related to operational weather radar. A total of 19 experts from 11 WMO Members attended the first session.
To promote active discussion by the team, JMA first shared its recent achievements on weather radar application technologies, including Radar/Raingauge-Analyzed Precipitation (RAP), Very-short-range Forecasts of Precipitation (VSFP) and High-resolution Precipitation Nowcasts (HRPNs). The experts present then discussed a working plan for weather radar improvement, with efforts such as the utilization of emerging technologies, data exchanges, capacity building and training as well as development and proposals of related regulatory and guidance material.
After the session, JMA held the Weather Radar Technical Seminar on 17 March 2017 to support discussion of capacity building activities and cutting-edge technologies. At the event, JMA detailed the progress of the joint regional WMO Integrated Global Observation System (WIGOS) project of WMO Regions II (Asia) and V (South-West Pacific) on weather radar, and state-of-the-art technologies such as solid-state transmitters were detailed by experts and radar manufacturers.